0 OWNER SAYS WORDPROCESSORS FIRM UNHUR T Copier boycott continues By MAUREEN FLEMING Wordprocessors has not suffered financially from a consumer boycott started by some former employees in July, one of the owners of the State Street copying store, Jim Smith, said. "In fact," Smith said this week, "business from businessmen has picked up because they don't think what the people (picketers) are doing is ap- propriate." SMITH EXPLAINED that smaller orders that normally would have been placed may not have been because of the boycott, but the larger commercial or- ders have increased. He said he is not yet sure whether his student-related business will be hurt. Suzanne Napoleon, a former worker who has been picketing, said the con- sumer boycott was set up to "let the customers know just how unfair the owners are." She added that, the picketers are former employees and sympathizers. The two-year old Ann Arbor business has had employee-relation problems since last year. On August 28,1979, Wordprocessors employees voted whether tobe represented by the Industrial Workers of the World union, or no union at all. That vote ended in a tie.. MICAH KAMINER, a former em- ployee, said that in April, several em- ployees walked off their jobs because management either laid-off, fired, or harassed until they quit almost every union advocate in the shop who voted in the August election. "People were giving their blood for the business to keep it going. They would work 50 to 60 hours per week," he added. "After no sign of appreciation and af- ter the company started laying off or firing employees because they were making too much money, and hiring in- competents to fill their places, the em- ployees decided to strike," Kaminer emphasized. During the April walkout, he con- tinued, striking employees organized their own independent union, Em- ployees Against Arbitrary Action, and disassociated themselves from IWW. OWNER SMITH said he does not consider EAAA a bonafide labor organization because it does not involve all the employees of Wordprocessors. He explained that not all employees were allowed to vote on whether, to ac- cept the union. "Furthermore," he said, "employees not favoring the union have been harassed by EAAA union sym- pathizers." Smith also denied the charges that he was ousting union sympathizers from employees were in favor of a union," Kaminer stated. He said management would harass employees until they quit rather than lay them off when the per- son was no longer needed. They were also discriminatory in their treatment of employees, he ad- ded. Napoleon cited an incident in which a pro-union employee walked in late and received a written reprimand. No ac- tion was taken against an anti-union employee who walked in behind the other, she said. SMITH CALLED this charge "blatantly and totally untrue." He ex- plained that in one case that the pro- union people use as an example, the 'I've worked in Ann Arbor for a long- time. Most of the shops are more or less the same. You find you're just a rubber ball for someone's convenience. If you ever want to make a decent living you have to organize or you're impover- ish ed.' -Jim Forrester, former Wordprocessors employee The payroll problems have been corrected, he said. Kaminer also said some employees were not scheduled for as many hours as they were led to expect when they were hired. SOMETIMES, KAMINER said, workers would be on the schedule, come into work, and then be told to go home because there was not enough work for them. They would not be paid even though management was respon- sible for changing the schedule, he stated. "It is reasonable and logical to send people home if there's no work. This is a profit-making business," Smith rebut- ted. "But I don't recall sending anyone home much before the April strike," he added. In their new organizational effort, Smith said, the owners were trying to have the employees help each other complete jobs. He said 'the old em- ployeeswanted tospecialize and were not willing to help in other departmen- ts. "FOR EXAMPLE, the print shop might be working overtime to get a job finished, while the copy center had nothing to do and employees would stand around because the print sop was not their job," he explained. Forrester objected, saying some division of labor was caused "by the facts of life" and not because workers wanted departmentalization. He ex- plained that the machines were expen- sive and skilled labor was involved. Forrester said he and another laid-off print shop employee would have been, able to help in any other department, but were never called back to work. "MANY OF THE charges brought against, Wordprocessors are documen- tarily false," Smith emphasized. He added that his lawyer "was in- vestigating perjury charges against Ben Mattison (a former employee and spokesman for the group)." The National Labor Relations Board has been investigating EAAA's com- plaints since April and has found enough evidence against Wor- dprocessors to file a complaint against the company. The court hearing is set for December 8. Another set of com- plaints is currently being investigated. Forrester summed up his reasons for unionizing: "I've worked in Ann Arbor a long time. Most of the shops are more or less the same. You find you're just a rubber ball for someone's convenience. If you ever want to make a decent living you have to organize or you're im- poverished." the shop. He explained that the store had not been in "a profitable situation" for some time. To rectify the situation, he said, the, owners made organizational changes. HE EXPLAINED that limiting the number of hours the shop would be open and cutting back the number of em- ployees were some of the changes. "Low pay, no benefits, and no job security were other reasons why some employee who was not reprimanded was not on a specific time schedule. "What they (the pro-union em- ployees) don't like, they consider harassment, whether it's justified or not," he said. Jim Forrester, an ex-employee, cited monetary goals as an issue that united many of the employees at Wor- dprocessors. He explained that the company has used three banks since April, 1980, for payroll checks. Employees would deposit their checks and then be infor- med Wordprocessors had ihsufficient funds to cover them, he added. OR ELSE, HE explained, the owners would tell their employees not to cash the checks until after the weekend or until waiting a few days.- Smith agreed Wordprocessors had problems with payroll checks. The problems were not due to insufficient funds but were a result of lack of under- standing of one of the bank's policies, he explained. RACKHAM STUDENT GOVERNMENT " Answers your questions about the University * Represents graduate students on committees " Acts as student advocate " Provides evaluations ohdissertation typists 2006 Rackham Bldg. Office hrs.: M-F 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. 763-5271 I __________- 01 Uii LIII ii O*ct. 2 It's just another day unless you make a phone call A Do nothing, and it will be just like any other day. But if you call or stop by the Placement Office to set up an appointment, that day will be a very important one in your life. The day you find out about your future in Colorado Springs with Inmos. INMOS, a new semiconductor firm, decided to build its US headquarters in Colorado Springs with views from every window of Pikes Peak and the Cheyenne Mountain range. 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